Stewart, a graduate student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, had studied mantas for years, diving with them all over the world, but in all his time in the oceans he had only seen one or two other young mantas.

But they were unfazed—they saw juveniles all the time. Even so, Stewart knew it wasn't normal to see so many baby rays. When he dug through 25 years of carefully collected dive data from the site, his hunch was confirmed: This was a nursery ground for giant manta rays. (Read why manta rays prefer “staycations.”)

“It's really important for us to know where these nursery sites are,” says Andrea Marshall, a ray expert at theMozambique-based Marine Megafauana Foundation and a National Geographic Explorer. “Anywhere that has tiny mantas is really important for us to learn about, so we can target our protection strategies.”

Watch: Camera Put on Giant Manta Ray for First Time Ever

The National Geographic Society, the Manta Trust and Scripps Institution of Oceanography have put Crittercams on manta rays for the first time. The cameras are gathering data that will help protect these giant underwater animals. Learn how the cameras were attached, and watch some amazing footage from the mantas' perspective.

Mantas are also “incredibly talented at getting caught in fishing gear,” explains Stewart, so the graceful creatures often end up as bycatch, their wide wings tangled in purse seines or trawl nets.

Researchers don’t yet know why, exactly, the Flower Garden Banks nursery are so attractive to young mantas, but they want to understand what makes the vibrant, shallow offshore reef habitat such a good place to grow up.

“These are the areas that hold the animals in their most delicate life phase,” says Giuseppe Nortarbartolo di Scioria, a marine conservation ecologist at the Tethys Institute, based in Italy. He hopes that, by understanding this nursery site, researchers can figure out how to find and protect other important nurseries around the world.

Stweart agrees. “The more we understand why these areas are important,” he says, “the better we can tailor [conservation strategies] to them—” and help ensure the young rays living in these nurseries survive long enough to have their own pups.